Hi! It’s Monday, May 18, 2010 and time for Math at ClickSchooling!
Recommended Website:
Rock-n-Roll Roadtrip World Tour
Age Range: 10-14 (Grades 6-8, pre-algebra/algebra)
A Maryland ClickScholar recommended this website that offers a free, interactive and challenging math game themed around a rock band’s world tour. The catch is that the students must use their math skills to solve real-life problems for the band using measurement, ratio, proportion, fractions, decimals, multiplication, division, etc., in order to get from one city to the next on the tour.
Rock-n Roll Road Trip World Tour was produced by Arkansas Educational Television
Network (AETN) as part of a national public television collaborative that was formed to create online resources focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects for middle school students.
When you get to the site, you’ll see a splash page that opens to the home page. There, you’ll see two icons, “Start Game” and “Educator Resources.”
Click on “Start Game” to jump right into the fun. Turn on your speakers to hear the music and some narration. You’ll visit 5 cities on the rock band’s tour and be presented with word problems that challenge students’ math skills as follows:
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Rocking Ratios
- London, England – Partying with Proportions
- Barcelona, Spain – Unit Rates
- Paris, France – Scale Drawing
- Tokyo, Japan – Similar Figures
You must answer the questions correctly to move to the next city on the tour. Be careful to read the questions carefully, and notice “how” the answers are to be written. If you have difficulty press the “hint” button. When the answer is incorrect you’ll hear a buzzer; when the answer is correct you’ll see a green light and hear a chime.
The answer key to the online questions are in the free, downloadable “Educator Guides” for each stop on the tour that can be located by clicking on the “Educator Resources” icon on the main page. (Note: You can return to the main page by clicking on the guitar icon on every page that says, “Main Menu.” The “Educator Guides” contain:
- An Overview of the Concepts, Objectives, and Standards for each game
- Key Vocabulary
- Materials Needed
- Group Activity (designed for classroom use)
- In-Class Individual Activity (can be used at home)
- Take-home Activity
- Worksheets
- Answer Key to Online Challenges
You can also click on “Cool Facts’ to learn interesting trivia about each of the major cities featured on the band’s tour.
The site also provides links to additional sites with games that challenge middle school students’ math skills as follows:
*Proportion Land Park – Students reason their way through 8 amusement park attractions that require them to solve science-based proportional reasoning problems before they can join in the fun.
*Math by Design – Students problem solve and think critically as they encounter unique geometry and measurement challenges.
*Scale City – Students in grades 6-8 go on the “biggest, smallest road trip ever” and explore roadside attractions while learning about the mathematics of scale.
This is a terrific resource for honing math skills in a fun and entertaining way, and earns a ClickSchooling Award (CSAW) for excellence!
